Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers this nursery rhyme, and I'm not sure why I remembered it just now, but I suspect that knowing it dates us.  Anyway, my container garden is growing quite well.  The house/dog sitter kept it watered while we were away and then we had some rain.  I've only watered once since I've been back and it rained later that day.

Clay has been out of town this week, which means I'm not cooking, which is good because I had regained five pounds last week so I'm working the fruit and vegetable diet plan hard this week.  I haven't been out for a hike yet, much to Sparky's dismay, because I've been mowing in my spare time to get the tall grass under control again.  Progress is being made on the grass, but losing the weight takes more time.

Walking with the walk-behind mower
is now Max's "thing." If I tie the leash
around my waist he can't get in front
of even the rear wheels, which is safer.

The new toy.  Or rather, the new maintenance
tool essential to our quality of life.

A big factor on the mowing front is that my mower man had returned both of my mowers while I was away.  Both are now running and cutting very well.  Mowing progress took another giant leap forward today when said mower man drove up to Lowe's with me and brought the new mower home on his trailer.  It's a zero-turn mower and driving it requires learning new motor skills.  I'm not sure why it has a cup holder because it takes two hands to operate at all times.  You'd have to stop if you want to take a drink.  Still, it's a grass cutting monster and will make short work of the pasture, once I become even moderately proficient on it.


If you've been following this blog for a while you may remember the German Shepherd hoarding situation here in Fluvanna County a couple years ago. Some white trash bitch had close to 30 shepherds living in deplorable conditions, including this dog, Anthony. He was one of the oldest and had probably fathered many if not most of the others.  I had this guy just briefly, then he moved to another foster home and was adopted from there to a wonderful family.  They shared pictures of him over the next two and a half years and it was obvious that he was much loved and well cared for at last.  He helped a little boy grow up and helped his adoptive mother through her own cancer treatment, but he had DM himself.  They finally had to let him go today.  This picture was taken when I had him and even then you can see that he was a majestic dog.  This is the third of those dogs rescued from that situation who have now passed.  It's sad, but I'm glad that they all spent their final years in good homes.




And so as not to end this post on such a somber note, here are some recent pics of Trooper and Maya together.